District Level Workshop on Sankalp held in Hailakandi

Dec.9: A Workshop on Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (Sankalp) was organised here on Wednesday. Inaugurating the workshop organised by Assam Skill Development Mission at Rabindra Bhawan, District Development Commissioner, Ranajeet Kumar Laskar urged the youths to take up the avocation in which they have the inherent skills. He said the youths after completion of their education must not hanker after white collar jobs but look out for greener pastures by honing their skills in which they have the inherent talents and gain meaningful employment.

Addressing the trainees, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Narendra Kumar Shah exhorted upon the youths to go in for enhancing their skills in which they have inherent talents to eke out a living for a lifetime. He said the district has huge potential in bamboo, carpet making, pottery and indigenous toys and these offers ample opportunities for the youths of the district to undergo specialised training and make gainful employment. Shah said Hailakandi being an aspirational district, the administration is focused on involving all sections of the people in taking the district along the path of progress and development.

Assistant State Project Manager, Social Mobilisation and Capacity Building, Md.Pinku Choudhury while giving a presentation on Sankalp Scheme and Skill Ecosystem, said 15 numbers of workshops on Sankalp are being planned across the state, the first being held in Hailakandi. Choudhury said ASDM is giving hand holding support to the districts so that they can focus on the potential areas in which the educated unemployed youth can be given skilling for gainful employment. He said there are 900 plus skill training centres of which 10 are in Hailakandi district. Choudhury urged the District Programme Managers of Barak Valley to make a study of the skills gap and to apprise the findings to the District Skill Committee to work on the areas of focus to identify job roles for skilling the youths accordingly.

District Agriculture Officer incharge, Dr.AR Ahmed asked the youths to undergo training in the avocation in which they have inherent skills to make their lives purposeful. Earlier, DPM, Hailakandi, Pinak Choudhury, in his welcome address, said the workshop is aimed at strengthening institutional mechanism for skill development and increasing access to quality and market through better coordination and planning. “Sankalp encourages innovative and best practices at local level resulting in enhanced access, quality and capacity in skill development and thereby achieving better alignment in demand and supply of skilled resources which will bring all skill-related stakeholders under one ecosystem that will eventually make the unemployed youths economically vibrant and resilient,” he quipped.

Skill Nodal Officer, Sari Langtau and DPM, Cachar, Niloy Sinha were also present on the occasion.
Around 200 educated unemployed youths have enrolled themselves for undergoing training in different avocations.

Sankalp is a World Bank loan assisted programme run by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to improve skilling at the district level with the help of decentralised planning and quality improvement. The central government has released funds to nine states, including Assam under Skill India’s Sankalp scheme. The amount includes Rs 10 lakh given to 117 aspirational districts under ‘Aspirational Skilling Abhiyan’. According to officials, with decent success, the government is now looking to strengthen the training of the trainers and the provision is being made to map demand of the skilling requirements across sectors and geographies.

Under Sankalp scheme, four key result areas have been identified: institutional strengthening, quality assurance of skill development programs, the inclusion of marginalised population in skill development, and expanding skills through public-private partnerships (PPPs).

Sankalp aims to implement the mandate of the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) which was launched by the government in July 2015 to create convergence across sectors and states in terms of skill training activities. Besides consolidating and coordinating skilling efforts, NSDM also aims to expedite decision making across sectors to achieve skilling at scale with speed and standards. Recently the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has called for Sankalp scheme to focus on district-level skilling ecosystem through convergence and coordination.